The suspects were taken to the Royal Thai Police Office headquarters following their arrest in Koh Samui district, Surat Thani, on Monday (July 2) by immigration police. They were caught while withdrawing money at different places on Koh Samui.

The passports of the two Ugandan men had expired. They were initially charged with overstaying their visas. The arresting team seized bank accounts, ATM cards, mobile phones and notebook computers from the three suspects and sent the information to the Royal Thai Police Office centre for information technology crime suppression for examination.

Investigators said the two foreign suspects and the Thai woman were colluding in swindling money from Thai women on Facebook. About B800,000 in total had been paid into the gang’s accounts.

Of the victims, four women had already filed complaints with police – at Talat Phlu Police Station and Pracha Chuen Police Station, both in Bangkok, and police stations in Buriram and Trang provinces.

Damage to the four complainants was about B300,000, said Maj Gen Surachet, head of the centre’s suppression team.

The centre would coordinate with banks and the Anti-Money Laundering Office to confiscate assets from the gang and return money to the victims, said Maj Gen Surachet. The investigation was ongoing.

The Ugandan men had created fake Facebook accounts using photos of good looking foreigners in the profiles to draw their victims’ attention, according to the Tourist Police Bureau Facebook page.

Wilaiwan told police she had met the two men only recently at a spa shop. They had hired her to open bank accounts for them, and paid her B4,000 per account, according to INN News agency.